Constant CPU usage above 40%

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

My friend has a 860k and his CPU usage is well above 40% all the time. He says it even gets to 100% when on BF4. His temps while idle are 80c which is ridiculous. He is on W7 and I have access to his computer via TeamViewer so I can change things. What I have noticed is that System Idler Process and svchost.exe are taking up the most. SIP with 57 and svc with 24. How can I help him?

[HPWebcamAble]

What cooler is he using?
Has he OC'd the CPU at all?

What GPU does he have?

100% usage on BF4 for a quad core AMD isn't out of the ordinary.

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

No idea what cooler but it is air cooled, non OC and he has a 750 ti

[HPWebcamAble]

Just now, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

No idea what cooler but it is air cooled, non OC and he has a 750 ti

Have him check the temp with AMD Overdrive, it might be more accurate. The CPU has a physical limit of around 95 C so that's not terrible, but a bit warm.

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

It hit 91 while in BF4 FYI

[HrutkayMods]

7 minutes ago, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

My friend has a 860k and his CPU usage is well above 40% all the time. He says it even gets to 100% when on BF4. His temps while idle are 80c which is ridiculous. He is on W7 and I have access to his computer via TeamViewer so I can change things. What I have noticed is that System Idler Process and svchost.exe are taking up the most. SIP with 57 and svc with 24. How can I help him?

svchost does that to a lot of PCs on W7. It maxed my ram out on my qx6800 machine (when it had 2GB of ram) and slowed it to a crawl. there is ways to fix it but later Windows don't seem to have the svchost issue...  is he against W10? that might and in fact should fix it

[manikyath]

sounds like he could use a clean install, and some hardware maintenance (complete rebuild?)

 

easiest thing for the temps: how dusty is his system?

[Piemanfood]

For the temps try dusting the system out and changing the thermal paste out with some fresh paste.

[HrutkayMods]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

sounds like he could use a clean install, and some hardware maintenance (complete rebuild?)

 

easiest thing for the temps: how dusty is his system?

Svchost  even does it on a clean install of W7 on some PCs

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

@HrutkayMods @manikyath i have read that is is a common problem with W7, my rule of troubleshooting is to reformat last before all. I love W10 but he is iffy about it after all of my bad stories.

[Enderman]

when svchost is using CPU that means its working on something

it goes away after several hours when its finished

 

i just leave my PC on all the time and it goes away after a while when its done configuring system stuff or whatever

 

if you turn off or restart the PC during that time its working you can mess stuff up

[manikyath]

Just now, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

i have read that is is a common problem with W7, my rule of troubleshooting is to reformat last before all. I love W10 but he is iffy about it after all of my bad stories.

i forgot how exactly because its been a while since i needed it, but theres a way of finding out which exact service is taking up the resources, and then you can set that one to "manual" if its not a *vital* service. (which, most of them actually arent)

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

it goes away after several hours when its finished

i just leave my PC on all the time and it goes away after a while when its done configuring system stuff or whatever

if you turn off or restart the PC during that time its working you can mess stuff up

or well, y'know, sometimes it keeps going for literally weeks and you just turn it off in frustration.

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

@Enderman so leave it on for 24 hours then see? Is 80c idle safe though?

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

i forgot how exactly because its been a while since i needed it, but theres a way of finding out which exact service is taking up the resources, and then you can set that one to "manual" if its not a *vital* service. (which, most of them actually arent)

or well, y'know, sometimes it keeps going for literally weeks and you just turn it off in frustration.

never happened to me

probably cause i take care of my OS and down shut down during stuff like that, and i always keep windows updates up to date

1 minute ago, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

@Enderman so leave it on for 24 hours then see? Is 80c idle safe though?

80C idle = something is seriously wrong

but yeah leave it for a while and hope it finishes soon

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

@Enderman 

"80C idle = something is seriously wrong

but yeah leave it for a while and hope it finishes soon" that is strangely contradicting

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

never happened to me

probably cause i take care of my OS and down shut down during stuff like that, and i always keep windows updates up to date

the thing is you dont know its happening, and if shutting windows down while its doing background tasks its not telling you is an issue, microsoft needs to seriously get their shit together.

 

should also add, between probably 50+ BADLY maintained windows 7 computers i've only seen this happen myself ONCE, and that laptop was such a disaster i'm surprised its still alive.

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

So W10 it is?

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

"80C idle = something is seriously wrong

but yeah leave it for a while and hope it finishes soon" that is strangely contradicting

how old is the system? if its a few years old or in a dusty enviroment it may just need a clean.

 

is your friend intelligent enough to not break his pc while dusting it out?

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

the thing is you dont know its happening, and if shutting windows down while its doing background tasks its not telling you is an issue, microsoft needs to seriously get their shit together.

yes the fact it lets you shut down or restart while svchost is doing stuff is really weird

luckily I have a CPU meter on my desktop so I can easily see when something is still going or not

[HrutkayMods]

1 minute ago, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

So W10 it is?

I'd say yes but the cooling issue needs to addressed too and it still might be fixable in W7 but W10 should fix it

[manikyath]

Just now, Enderman said:

yes the fact it lets you shut down or restart while svchost is doing stuff is really weird

luckily I have a CPU meter on my desktop so I can easily see when something is still going or not

mostly because its supposed to "pause" what it's doing to shut down cleanly, and continue when you next use your machine.

 

they're "background" tasks for a reason. otherwise they'd be implemented in windows update's "restart to apply updates" thing.

 

but just... sometimes... things break as they do, and it'll eat 24% cpu, AKA one of the 4 cores.

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

@manikyath no Idea but I would say easily over a year old. Knowing him I would have to instruct him how to, he couldn't even plug in a fan cable back in the MOBO that he took out to begin with,

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, HrutkayMods said:

I'd say yes but the cooling issue needs to addressed too and it still might be fixable in W7 but W10 should fix it

a clean install of windows 7 will fix it just as much as win10.

 

and from expeirence: DO A CLEAN INSTALL OF WINDOWS 10.

[GetShrektMrKrabs]

I am running a full scan in Kaspersky rn though just to see if a virus is posing itself has a svchost

[manikyath]

Just now, GetShrektMrKrabs said:

@manikyath no Idea but I would say easily over a year old. Knowing him I would have to instruct him how to, he couldn't even plug in a fan cable back in the MOBO that he took out to begin with,

would he be able to take the sidepanel off and conclude how dusty the guts are? that 80°c makes me suspect his cpu cooler is a clogged mess.

 

also, get him one of these, and tell him to just spray the dust out: